La queue du scorpion

When a plane explodes in the air with no survivors, the unfaithful Lisa Baumer (Evelyn Stewart) is informed that her husband, businessman Baumer, left a one-million-dollar insurance police and she is the beneficiary. She travels from London to Athens to receive the payment in cash and then to travel to Greece to meet her lover. Meanwhile, the insurance company suspects that a bomb might be planted in the plane and assigns their investigator Peter Lynch (George Hilton) to investigate the widow in Greece. Soon she is threatened by Baumer's lover Lara Florakis (Janine Reynaud) and her bodyguard Sharif (Luis Barboo), but Peter protects and rescues her from the attackers. When the front desk calls Lisa to take the taxi to the airport, they discover that she was murdered, and the money has vanished. Soon local Police Inspector Stavros (Luigi Pistilli), Interpol Agent John Stanley (Alberto de Mendoza) and the French Investigative Reporter Cléo Dupont (Anita Strindberg), who is having an affair with Peter, investigate the case where Peter is the prime suspect.

"La coda dello scorpione", a.k.a. "The Case of the Scorpion's Tail", is an enjoyable and attractive Italian Spanish UK thriller (or giallo). The plot follows the usual formula, with a mystery, twists, sexy and beautiful actresses, a handsome male character and many crimes. The locations are wonderful, but there are also silly moments and dialogs. The special effects, specially the gore, are not good but acceptable considering it is a 1971 movie. The conclusion is weak, but the film is worthwhile watching. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Cauda do Escorpião" ("The Scorpion's Tail")

After the death of her husband in a plane crash, a woman receives the inheritance left behind and enjoys herself but is soon under attack by a multitude of parties that want the money, and when they succeed a private investigator and journalist decide to figure out what happened only to find themselves the new targets.

This was a solid if somewhat flawed giallo. As with most entries here, this one manages to get a lot to like by weaving together a generally fun and engaging central mystery. The emergence of the monumental life-insurance police and the resulting greed by the various sundry characters wanting to get their hands on it plays a prominent role here in tying together the disparate plotlines as it switches focus. Upon realizing what's happening with the numerous deaths around them and how the clues come together, there's a great storyline here featuring the hunt for the missing money and how everyone fits together in the end. As well, the central murder scenes are impressive and just an overall blast. The initial ambush in the theater and chase through the building is quite thrilling, as is the later chase inside the victims' house while the raging thunderstorm blares outside offering fun, thrilling scenes that have plenty to like while building a fine setup for later. Featuring several fun brawls featuring the killer confronting and attacking various victims in both lethal and non-lethal confrontations have some excitement to them, and with a fun finale revealing some surprise revelations, great chasing and a fun detail to the investigation there's plenty to like with this one. There are some issues to be had with this one. One of the main flaws is how the pacing is quite disjointing, as obvious cut scenes are left in to boost up the running time. The exploits of the hotel managers calling around to find out what's happening, scenes of the investigators running around the city in an attempt to understand clues or general travelogue scenes of the city are completely unnecessary to move this along and could've been taken out without any change to the film. Contrasted with the shorter, straightforward stalking scenes this leaves an indelible and obvious mark against the film. The other problem to this one is a wholly jarring and somewhat scattershot storyline which plays out here. The initial part plays out nicely with the apparent death and struggle to reclaim the policy which is a fine storyline with the potential for quite a few scummy players, but then it shifts to the investigator and then the reporter which is somewhat chaotic. This has no real logical throughput for the rapid shift of characters being thrust into the spotlight since these two just seem dropped into the story halfway through the film with little build-up and seems to be quite confusing as to why they're both involved. It's not a big issue but does lower it somewhat.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Nudity and Language.

While she makes love to someone else, Lisa's husband dies in a jet crash. She stands to inherit all of his money, despite them being basically separated. An ex-lover has a confrontation with her, threatening her with blackmail. She pays up — some money now, then some when she gets the letter where she wished that her husband was dead. But a gloved hand finds the letter and kills the ex-lover!

Lisa has to go to Athens to collect the money, but runs into one of her husband's ex-lovers, Lara Florakis (Janine Reynaud, Succubus) and a knife wielding maniac. Peter Lynch (George Hilton from All the Colors of the Dark) saves her and takes her to the hotel. She asks for all of the money in cash, despite warnings to how dangerous that is.

That same maniac tries to kill Peter, then comes back to kill Lisa, sharp jazz wails staccato punctuating each stab of the knife, each rip across her body. Jump cuts and flashes and the room is covered by the police, who question him.

An INTERPOL agent, Inspector Stavros (Luigi Pistilli, The Good, the Bad and The Ugly, Your Vice is a Locked Door and Only I Have the Key), offers to help Peter with the case and the moment he goes to talk to Lara, he's attacked by the gloved man.

That brings in Cléo Dupont(Anita Strindberg, Who Saw Her Die?), a journalist who pretty much instantly falls in love with our hero. They go up to his room, but it's been turned over by the police, with even the bed sliced open looking for the million dollars that went missing when Lisa was killed.

Turns out the gloved man wasn't on Lara's side — he or she slits her throat, then runs up a spiral staircase as a guard gives chase. This reveals a room full of one eyed baby dolls and a strange oil painting. Between the woman's face against the glass with blood spraying everywhere and these reveals, this film is really tipping its hat toward Argento.

The bodyguard chases after the killer, but is knocked off the roof. One slash across the fingers and we have another dead body. It's 45 minutes in…and most of the IMDb cast is already dead!

That said — there's a stewardess that gets the gift of scorpion earrings from an unseen lover. So there's that.

Meanwhile, Peter and Cléo make love on an orange shag couch while a peeping tom watches from the window. You know how Bruce Banner always has on purple slacks and you wonder, "Who wears purple slacks?" Peter does.

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Well made and stylish while still ultimately making sense this thriller would work better for non giallo fans to get interested in the genre than the later Argento entries which go overboard in all directions.

For fans of these crazed Italian thrillers, they will appreciate George Hilton and the turns his character takes and what he's put through. The camera-work is fresh with dashes of graphic violence and odd, but appropriate choices and a good not overblown music score as well. The less you know about the story the better to make it work.

The only thing lacking in keeping this from being a great Sergio Martino directed giallo is that the story doesn't have that extra sexual or psychological, or both element to put it over the top. It's more a routine mystery, the characters are well defined but live or die according to the plot not according to their own virtues and flaws.

The recent DVD (2005) release is beautiful looking and definitely the way to see the film, unless these ever get art house screenings which seems unlikely.

Just watched The Case of the Scorpion's Tail for the first time, very impressed. Incredibly stylish, good looking cast, great locations (London and Athens), a terrific musical score by Bruno Nicolai, a few interesting plot twists and some decent murder scenes. The latter reminded me very much of Dario Argento's giallo movies, the blood does look more like red paint to be honest but the kills are pretty brutal (despite the BBFC 15 rating). I liked one scene in which the camera is angled at 90 degrees and swings between 2 people having a conversation. This movie ticks all the right giallo boxes, right down to bottles of J&B whisky everywhere, and the quote I have used for my title is one of the best lines ever! Better than director Segio Martino's later film "Torso", this is essential viewing for fans of the Giallo genre. Superb.